They cheered him as he spoke, but after this they never raised him to
power again.
Just about this time a noble named Publius Clodius Pulcher, who was a
demagogue of the worst moral character, in the pursuance of his base
intrigues, committed an act of sacrilege by entering the house of
C?sar, disguised as a woman, during the celebration of the mysteries of
the Bona Dea, to which men were never admitted. He was tried for the
impiety, and, through the efforts of Cicero, was almost convicted,
though he managed to escape by bribery. He was ever afterward a
determined enemy of the great orator, and, by the aid of Pompey, C?sar,
and Crassus, finally succeeded in having him condemned for putting to
death the Catilinian conspirators without due process of law. Cicero
does not appear manly in the story of this affair. He left Rome,
fearing to face the result; and after he had gone Clodius caused a bill
to be passed by which he was declared a public enemy, and every citizen
was forbidden to give him fire or water within four hundred miles of
Rome (spring of 58). He found his way to Brundusium and thence to
Greece, where he passed his time in the most unmanly wailings and
gloomy forebodings. His property was confiscated, his rich house on the
Palatine Hill and his villas being given over to plunder and
destruction.
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